The rapid advancement of vehicular technologies during the last years has resulted in an exponential increase of electronics in automobiles, bringing with them new vehicle control functions, cutting-edge sensors, rigorous fuel efficiency and optimized performance in breaking actions, lateral control or navigation and routing systems, among others. Along with the increased functionality, vehicles have become a place for information access, media consumption and personal entertainment. In-Vehicle Infotainment Systems offer wide ranging types of information. Additionally, drivers and passengers are bringing their personal consumer electronics into vehicle cockpits, turning cars into highly interactive spaces.
All these advances come however with a significant downside—vehicles are becoming incredibly complex machines. With the average population's age increasing worldwide, predictions point out that within 50 years one third of the population in regions like Japan, Europe, China and North America, will be over 60 years old. It is therefore safe to assume that a great number of drivers will be elders in the future. Many of current in-vehicle technologies are specially designed to be of aid to elder drivers. However, interactions with in-vehicle environments have become increasingly complex and drivers are susceptible to cognitive and perceptual information overload.
In driving conditions, mental resources are allocated for the primary driving task, leaving little capacity to secondary actions. Safety concerns have put In-Vehicle Infotainment Systems in the spotlight and some have estimated that the use of IVIS's contributed to 25% to 30% of crash risk. However, the use of infotainment and gadgets in the vehicle does not cease. The “multiple resource principle” states that multitasking of actions can take place if allocated in different perception modalities, which supported the design of hands-free, eyes-free vehicular interfaces. Different studies have addressed the effects of modality for dual-task performance in driving scenarios. Many present auditory interfaces are preferred media for in-vehicle warnings or navigation. Effects on driver distraction have been shown to be lower on voice interfaces.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved voice-interfaced system and method for providing in-vehicle assistance. In particular, there is a need for a smart voice-operated system that utilizes natural language understanding, as well as emotional adaptive interfaces, to assist drivers when problems occur on the road with minimal effect on their driving performance. There is also a need to provide a system and method which reduces the learning curve of new in-vehicle technologies and serves as a platform for the next generation of user-centered intelligent vehicle assistants.